Bloomberg View expands editorial board

1/13/12 10:57 AM EST

Bloomberg View, the editorial arm of Michael Bloomberg's media empire, is adding five new names to its editorial board: Katy Roberts, former editor of the New York Times' Week in Review; James Gibney, former features editor at The Atlantic; Michael Newman, former politics editor at Slate; and former Wall Street Journal economic policy reporter Deborah Solomon and Istanbul bureau chief Marc Champion.

The op-ed site serves as Bloomberg's means for influencing politics and policy after he concludes third and final term as mayor of New York. As the Times reported before its launch, "The mayor, a keen student of power, is privately conceding to friends that he will not be a candidate for president, a position he covets, and he is coming to grips with the reality that philanthropy, even on the sky-is-the-limit scale that he is planning, will not be enough to make him a potent force in national and international affairs."

View, which launched somewhat anti-climactily last May, is slowly building its ranks as the end draws near.